No More NFA Regs For Suppressors?

(From: The Shooter’s Log) — U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz (AZ-05), has pro­posed leg­is­la­tion that would remove sup­pres­sors and silencers from Nation­al Firearms Act regs and treat them as reg­u­lar firearms. Here are more details about the bill.

This leg­is­la­tion (H.R. 3799) will remove sup­pres­sors from the purview of the Nation­al Firearms Act (NFA), replac­ing the fed­er­al trans­fer process with an instan­ta­neous NICS back­ground check. The act also includes a pro­vi­sion to refund the $200 trans­fer tax to appli­cants who pur­chase a sup­pres­sor after Octo­ber 22, 2015.

It is cur­rent­ly legal to hunt with a sup­pres­sor in 37 states. Forty-one states allow pri­vate own­er­ship of sup­pres­sors.

“The Amer­i­can Sup­pres­sor Asso­ci­a­tion believes that cit­i­zens should not have to pay a tax to pro­tect their hear­ing while exer­cis­ing their Sec­ond Amend­ment rights,” said Knox Williams, pres­i­dent and exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Amer­i­can Sup­pres­sor Asso­ci­a­tion (ASA).

Sup­pres­sors are a great addi­tion to most any cal­iber. They make shoot­ing fun and reduce the chance of neg­a­tive­ly affect­ing your hear­ing or those around you. In a home defense sce­nario, this is a seri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion.

Also known as silencers, the laws of physics dic­tate that no sup­pres­sor will ever be able to ren­der gun­fire silent. Sup­pres­sors are sim­ply muf­flers for firearms, which func­tion by trap­ping the expand­ing gas­es of ignit­ed gun­pow­der at the muz­zle.

On aver­age, sup­pres­sors reduce the noise of a gun­shot by 20 to 35 deci­bels (dB), rough­ly the same sound reduc­tion as earplugs or ear­muffs. In addi­tion to hear­ing pro­tec­tion, sup­pres­sors also mit­i­gate noise com­plaints from those who live near shoot­ing ranges and hunt­ing lands.

“The removal of sup­pres­sors from the Nation­al Firearms Act has been our ulti­mate goal since day one. For months, we have worked along­side Rep. Salmon’s office and the Nation­al Rifle Asso­ci­a­tion to craft this leg­is­la­tion,” said Williams. “Although we rec­og­nize that intro­duc­ing this bill is the first step in what will be a lengthy process to change fed­er­al law, we look for­ward to work­ing with Rep. Salmon and the NRA to advance and ulti­mate­ly enact this com­mon-sense leg­is­la­tion.”

Sup­pres­sors have been fed­er­al­ly reg­u­lat­ed since the pas­sage of the Nation­al Firearms Act of 1934. The NFA reg­u­lates the trans­fer and pos­ses­sion of cer­tain types of firearms and devices, includ­ing sup­pres­sors. Cur­rent­ly, prospec­tive buy­ers must send in a Form 4 appli­ca­tion to the ATF, pay a $200 trans­fer tax per sup­pres­sor, under­go the same back­ground check that is required to pur­chase a machine gun, and wait months for the ATF to process and approve the paper­work.